I was Bill Clinton!
...and why I didn't care, but you should
By Mark Vorzimmer
Mvorzimmer@aol.com
Reflecting on Bill Clinton's predicament the other day, it occurred to me, that for the better part of my life, I was Bill Clinton. Sure, I wasn't the President, but in one key respect, I was identical. ...or in one key dis-respect. What's at the heart of Bill Clinton's behavior toward women is disrespect...disrespect towards women. And although a close analysis of Bill Clinton's behavior belies an inherent disrespect for many different and "diverse" groups, it is primarily his actions towards women that allow me to dissect, from a 'first-person' viewpoint, his actions. A viewpoint fresh from the experiences of a man that behaved identically, albeit throughout a much earlier period in his life.
I lied about women. I lied to my girlfriend; "Where were you last night?" My Mother; "What have you been up to?" My attractive female colleagues at work; "Hello..." Women in grocery stores; "You're not actually eatin' that stuff are you?"
I knew it reached ridiculous proportions one night when-at home asleep with my girlfriend of several years-my other girlfriend came over at two o'clock in the morning, and when I told her I was, "entertaining", asked me "Who [is] the slut?" For years I thought the mistake was keeping the "strange" around too long.
It wasn't that I just lied about women. I lied to women. I lied to men-usually husbands and boyfriends. And, as we all know, you don't just lie about something or to someone, you depart from the moorings of truth-you drop a bolder in the calm sea of reality.
Does Bill Clinton have what it takes to chew his own leg off?
One of the problems liars are faced with is the immediate necessity to lie again; to cover the lie just told. Lies are like cancerous cells whose only effective countermeasure-when not in a complicient host-leaves the patient sick, if not physically altered. A fox will chew its' own leg off to get out of a trap, but it must be duly noted-the fox wants to be free of the trap. For a liar to get out of the trap of lies there has got to be a great motivation to do so. Bill Clinton's lies have got him where he is today. He has no great motivation to change anything...it would be athwart to his psychic being.
A guy I work with said he was instructing his thirteen-year-old daughter to respond to men as though they were sexual predators. I think it's a smart idea-if he cares about her. He was a lot like me when he was younger-a predator. A smart, relatively good looking, successful, likeable guy, but a predator none-the-less.
Is Bill Clinton a sexual predator? Doctor Paul Fick, in his book The Dysfunctional President; Inside the Mind of Bill Clinton, likens Clinton's behavior to "...an individual compulsively engaged in drug activity...", and adds that, "...it is easier to identify the willingness of a compulsive drug user to engage in illicit activity to satisfy his need, since most drugs are illegal. The drug user will engage compulsively in behavior detrimental to personal relationships and business dealings..." Consider the risk associated with Clinton's engagement of Lewinsky in matters such as those now a part of public record.
Between Gennifer and Monica
Sexual behavior prior to marriage, or in Clinton's case, the presidency, would be, as many argue, a matter between him and the First Lady, but it could still prove evidence of pathology. "With relative ease, one can predict, from past behavior, that Clinton's sexual behavior will continue to produce problems for his presidency." A prophetic diagnosis Fink made it in 1994-between Gennifer and Monica (as it were).
Why should the American people care about all this? Because once you break with the truth, your reasoning is no longer dependent on reality. It is as if you are trading in a currency not linked to a 'gold' standard of truth. A standard of truth implies an ongoing struggle-for it is easier to lie than to tell the truth, as anyone who has faced the anxiety of having to give someone some bad news knows. My lies about women lead to a break with the truth inside, and in turn, made it easier to lie to anyone else about anything-any time. For a time I gave up the struggle for the truth. Although I regained my footing in the years since then, it was a painful process that at one point cost me friends, health, money and a lot of time. You see, my problem was not pathological-it was a reparably weaned-in, emotional attribute engendered by the circumstances surrounding a parental divorce. Although Bill Clinton's problem may have its genesis is some of the same issues, at his age it has surely baked into a pathology that would take nothing short of a exorcise to correct. And, notwithstanding his photo ops traipsing out of church on Sunday's, there's no way he's holding tight to religious teachings.
A Baby Ruth galaxy
Lying to someone is tantamount to saying, "I'm smarter than you." You know what the truth is and you are depriving someone else of this reality. It may not have any great consequences, but you are none-the-less robbing someone of a true version of fact. One rarely lies to anyone they think smarter than they are because they have the fundamental belief that the other person either knows the truth, or that they have some divine propensity to learn the truth. My lying to women was based on the theory that they would not learn the truth. Or that if they did, I could easily keep them bamboozled. I thought I was smarter than all of them. In fact, I thought I was smarter than everyone I lied to-or I wouldn't have lied to them.
On one of the evening talk shows' Man on the Street interviews, the question was asked, "What galaxy do we live in?" Although they screen answers for the most amusing, one hastens to guess how much is really necessary. For those that couldn't say, a quick hint was proffered, "It's also the name of a candy bar..." As if a light bulb just went on, one respondent slapped his forehead and answered, "The Baby Ruth!"
Bill Clinton thinks we're living in a galaxy of Baby Ruth people. How else would he continue to treat the American people like idiots? Why else would he treat women as he does? There is an inherent disrespect for his conquests-that's why.
There is no way one can endure in a struggle with virtue when you are constantly being pulled down by the weight of an overwhelming personal problem. Lying is easy. It's even easier the more you do it, and that's why I didn't care when I was lying to all those women. I was basically getting what I wanted (or all I wanted, as phased during those years). But sooner or later you end up wanting someone that properly recognizes the they're smart enough, there's no lying your way past it. Not for the night; not for the weekend; not for the next couple years. That's when one starts to care-that's when one learns. You end up caring about someone beside yourself. You are then magically endowed with the motivation to change.
Why should you care? ...because Bill Clinton doesn't.
This article copyright © 1999 by Mark Vorzimmer, and may not be reproduced in any form without the express written consent of its author. All rights reserved.